The Blade Runner is a movie that captures a number of themes of which the most poignant is the relationship between capitalism and technology and how this relationship can influence the lives of human beings here on planet earth. To some extent, the film is based on a futuristic world and is almost of prediction of the director’s view of how the world will pan out with time, given the interaction of all these three elements. It is instructive that the movie was played in the 1980, at a time when technological advancement were not as we see them today. This paper will deal with how the usage of aesthetics in the Blade Runner has helped to engender the theme of human consumption which is driven by capitalism.

The shot at the beginning of the film shows rising smoke filling it. The hazy environment is reminiscent of how industrialization has affected our planet. A striking scene is when the shot is filled with a hazy smoke and the viewer really struggles to make out what is beyond the smoke. For anyone who has come across the extent of pollution in some Chinese cities, such that even sunlight cannot penetrate the hazy atmosphere, this shot is awakening. The shot has been used to good effect because nothing important appears to be going on, a pointer to the timelessness or the hopeless situation that exists. A feeling of uncertainty, which continues throughout the feeling, is created with this shot. However, when we see the industrial smoke rising we more or less understand the effect of this on people living in such situations. Huge levels of pollution are not what people may like to be experiencing on a daily basis. Thus, when characters in the movie prefer leaving the ‘planet’ and going into nature later in the movie, they are clearly running away from something and particularly the pollution. The subtle way this message is captured is sobering to the viewer given the earth is full of nice things as we can judge with the presumed industrial activity going on and the neon lights later on. Indeed, throughout the movie, we see a struggle between pollution and the search of a better fashionable life, with human population appearing to be making good use of technological advancement to make their lives easier.

Another shot that is more in tune to the film is when we see the neon lights, which is related to billboard advertising through the smoke. The advertising is pointer to the commercialization of the economy; companies coming up to produce which means that, people get fashionable goods and services to consume. However, this shot has been used to great effect to represent the indifference between having top of the range goods or what we can say as living on the fast lane and having a better environement to live in. The people struggling with pollution have a choice which unfortunately they are either unwilling to take or its beyond them to make the choice. Unfortunately, the choice being made here is not good for the environment and they are all victims as a result. This is perhaps a grim reminder that the fruits of commercialization have an environmental price. The process of production as we know it involves some level of pollution into the environment as the raw materials are converted into finished goods to meet our needs. It is this competition between consumption and environmental soundness that we encounter across the film. It is effective in that the director has not tried to offers solutions to the issue at hand but leaves it open so that we may figure it out even as governments push for more investments to create the much needed jobs.

Another aesthetic decision taken has to be with hazy backgrounds given to artificial images which appear to be bright in the scene. This images of the ‘repellants’, which are basically human like creatures created to help human beings is more telling in themselves. This decision is used succinctly to capture the fears and uncertainties societies have over the industrialization. There is no denying the fact that industrialization helps, but increasing knowledge levels and technologies ensures that we are much more aware of what is happening in our environments. Essentially, even though we are having a nice life now, we are not certain as to how much that life may last and the repercussions of such a life. This is actually the debate around global warming and decreasing natural resources such as wildlife and even valuable minerals. The inclusion of those scenes brings a gloomy feel to the movie, as we wait to see what will unfold. It helps to continue the narrative that commercialization may not after all be of benefits to the economy, in any case, it may lead to people opting to leave the earth if they had a good option.